Retain all of our Overlord veterans. You need someone awesome to pilot an Awesome. Objectively speaking.

I like the Draconis raid and the opportunity to grab some better loot at 30% salvage. The only downside is the hot planet.

I can see a hostage extraction turning pretty sour.

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein"When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. - Nixon"I don't stand by anything." - Trump“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867

Yeah I get antsy at the hostage stuff, I mean, they're so squishy and usually something stuffs up. Having said that I like shooting things that fallapart quick. What's the real terms difference between Veteran Oppo and Regular B oppo?

As far as equipment goes, we're still in the pre-3050 era, so there's not that much room for variation, but, looking at the "Random Assignment Tables" for the Dracs vs Oberon, fighting the Oberon guys will be a lot easier as a large chunk of their lighter units will be slow, weak APCs. And their mechs aren't much better. Fighting the Dracs, we'll see some solid standbys such as the Tokugawa heavy tank, Sabaku Kaze heavy hovercraft, plenty of Jenners, Panthers, Dragons and Grand Dragons. If we're lucky, we might even see a K2 Catapult (dual PPCs instead of LRM launchers).

Actually, rumors have it that the Dracs still have some old-school Star League Highlanders kicking around. Maybe they treat them as strategic assets and don't deploy them against random mercenaries. Or maybe they do, who knows?

I'm open on either contract. Do we even have a line on getting Drac tech? I don't really have a good feel for who hates us and who doesn't.

Currently we do not. If we do some work on their behalf, and they're happy with it, they might hook us up with the "company store". Their toys currently include CASE (vents ammo explosions out the front and back so the whole mech doesn't disintegrate when that "useful" machine gun ammo blows), ER Large Lasers, pulse lasers and ER PPCs. The energy weapons are marginal improvements, but they generate a lot more heat than the standard versions. And our mechs aren't exactly running cool, even on good days. Oh yeah, and they've got endo-steel internal structure. But that's basically rebuilding the entire mech from the ground up.

Of course, if we do start working for them, it might piss off the FedCom guys.

Our current relationships with the major powers (as far as we're aware):
Federated Suns: Mostly good
Lyran Commonwealth: Mostly good
Free Worlds League: Mostly good (except for the planet we just left, and that other place we raided a few years back)
Free Rasalhague Republic: Grudging respect
Capellan Confederation: Hates our guts
Draconis Combine: Grudging respect

In the end, after a lot of heated discussion, we decide to dive right back into the Succession Wars. The money's better, and pirates suck. Plus, random periphery powers aren't going to be stockpiling high-tech goodies. It's tempting to split our force and take both contracts, but whoever goes to fight the pirates will be unavailable for at least a year (it takes half a year just to travel from Outreach to Blackstone). Paying out retention bonuses for our mechwarriors nearly takes us into the red, but the advance from the objective raid puts the money back in the bank.

On the plus side, we convince the FedCom guys to pay us more money, bringing the expected profit from the objective raid contract up to 217M C-Bills. The fact that we're bringing our own jumpship helps a lot. The liaison, a swarthy-looking junior-grade lieutenant named Zachary Miles Hawkins (call sign "Hawk") looks like he spends a lot of time in the gym and never misses forearm day. And always walks around with his sleeves rolled up. And don't forget the ever-present red beret. Scrub is a little suspicious - "I don't know, I've never met a guy with a heroic call sign who was any good." Once we pack our stuff up and get underway, he hands over a briefing packet. The planet is defended by a mixture of disorganized local militia and elements of the 24th Dieron Regulars. There's a list of facilities and individuals designated as contract objectives, of which we are to eliminate at least four.

When asked about why we're hitting this particular planet, Hawk shrugs. "Sorry, Major, no can do on the why. But hey, you guys get to ride along with me! Can't wait to try out my new Wolfhound." But, looking at the list of things we're assigned to blow up, it's mostly military facilities and high-ranking individuals. It seems pretty likely that we're softening a target up for a follow-on invasion. It's even got a cool name and everything: Operation Red Jackal.

The Wolfhound is a new construction from the FedCom factories. It's a pretty fast disco-bot. The variant Hawk drives is a WLF-1A, packing a large laser in the right arm and a cluster of three mediums in the torso. It doesn't have the heat sinks to fire all of them, but that's how it goes. It'll catch a ride in our Jumbo, along with a couple of other units and their supporting personnel.

Our projected route:

Spoiler:

The transit costs are ridiculously low, with three jumps costing us under 800k C-Bills. We jump in at the nadir jump point, with our jumpship unfurling its sails to recharge the jump drive. While we're out gallivanting planet-side, they'll ferry around some local traffic, and check in every couple of weeks.

June 24, 3038
Our landing is uncontested, as our dropships come down in the lowlands, where the smog is thick and sensor interference from nearby ore veins is phenomenal. We spend a couple of days unpacking our force and running patrols to get everyone used to the atmospheric and temperature conditions. One of the lances out on patrol with the liaison spots incoming sensor blips. If they approach any further, we run a risk of them seeing our dropships and spoiling the surprise party. We need to take them out, quickly.

Who happens to be the lucky lance? Alpha-One, Beta-One, Gamma-One or Delta-One?

Am I neuro-helmet cleared yet? Am I able to eat solid foods yet? More importantly, am I able to fit into the cockpit after 42 days of sitting around playing video games and eating (drinking?) junkfood and milkshakes?

"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because you're all the same." ~Jonathan Davis

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives." ~Robert M. Hutchins

Am I neuro-helmet cleared yet? Am I able to eat solid foods yet? More importantly, am I able to fit into the cockpit after 42 days of sitting around playing video games and eating (drinking?) junkfood and milkshakes?

Last mission date was September 29, 3037. Current date is June 24, 3038. I'd say that you're good.

Am I neuro-helmet cleared yet? Am I able to eat solid foods yet? More importantly, am I able to fit into the cockpit after 42 days of sitting around playing video games and eating (drinking?) junkfood and milkshakes?

Yep, you're cleared for duty. That was one of the last things Dr. Minnie did before cashing out. The Striker is all fixed-up too, and well-supplied with ammo now. We actually had about eight months of a mixture of R&R and training exercises while we set up the jumpship purchase.

I don't know whether this works in game mechanics, but wouldn't the logical thing be to send out a recon unit in order to get a handle on the opposition strength / composition, and then either have the recon unit take them out (if the opposition is weak enough) or then pull them back and send in a heavier lance if needed?

If that doesn't work, then seems like a mixed / medium lance would make the most sense.

I don't know whether this works in game mechanics, but wouldn't the logical thing be to send out a recon unit in order to get a handle on the opposition strength / composition, and then either have the recon unit take them out (if the opposition is weak enough) or then pull them back and send in a heavier lance if needed?

If that doesn't work, then seems like a mixed / medium lance would make the most sense.

The only problem I see with that is when they catch wind of our recon lance, they would have time to retreat and relay our presence if we had to pull back and send a heavier lance. What is our "medium lance", the best mix of speed and power?

Ahh, looks like you edited as I was typing to say the same thing. Good idea.

"You laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at you because you're all the same." ~Jonathan Davis

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives." ~Robert M. Hutchins

[As it currently stands, the opfor is generated based on the "battle value" of the initial lance we pick for a particular scenario, with a pretty heavy random factor. There are some situations, mechanically, where it is possible to carry out recon ahead of time, but this isn't one of them.]

If you've got time, then conducting recon is definitely the optimal course of action. Then, you'll know the exact force disposition (assuming the recon itself doesn't go balls-up) and can bring in enough force to completely crush the enemy.

Time is a little short though, so Scrub pushes the throttle forward. "Gamma-Two, Three, Four, swing around to the designated nav points. Let's make sure these guys don't get away. Hawk, use your discretion."

The hostiles resolve to a mixed group. Two lances of light mechs and a company of light tanks and hovercraft (with two heavy tanks for backup), poking their way through some nearby hills, with plenty of woods for cover. Well, maybe woods isn't the right term - it's thick, nasty jungle. We completely get the drop on them. The mechs are a standard Kurita mix - Jenners, Panthers, a few bug mechs, led by a Crusader.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We've got them surrounded. Now we need to take them out quickly before they a) escape or b) get a radio signal off.

Scrub takes a hit from a Tokugawa heavy tank, but her upgraded armor holds up. She fires her PPCs back, adding the SRM launcher to the mix. Previously, this would have made her mech's cockpit electronics go fuzzy, but the extra heat sinks are working quite well. Hyena gets blasted by a Peregrine VTOL that zips in, then lets loose at it with some cluster shot from the LBX autocannon. One of the rotors starts wobbling. His aim with the lasers is thrown off by having to dodge Crusader-launched LRMs and a couple of PPC shots. Xwraith engages a Jenner, blasting through the left leg armor with the ER laser while avoiding all of its incoming fire. Cylus plinks a couple of LRMs off a Manticore's armor. Well, worth a shot.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Cylus fires the large laser and sends a couple of LRMs at a laser carrier. One of the lasers shorts out as the front armor melts. The Peregrine keeps harassing Hyena, getting around the back of the Striker as Hyena pelts a Maxim with LBX rounds and a PPC shot for little effect. A Spider engages our Striker as well, firing close-in weapons (it's a 5K variant with two machine guns instead of a laser) and trying for a kick. Hyena steps aside and gives the enemy mech a one-two punch, nearly removing its center torso. The missed kick causes the Spider to overbalance and fall over.

Xwraith zaps the Jenner with the ER laser and a medium, while the two other medium lasers miss, along with the Jenner's attacks. The mech's left weapons mount looks a little melty.

Scrub swings her Warhammer's left PPC around and blasts a Harasser out of existence as it circles around the back of her Warhammer.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Xwraith takes a couple of hits to the left leg as the Jenner runs around, but manages to get three lasers onto the enemy mech. Two punch through the right torso armor and light up the SRM ammo. The ejection seat spins around a little, but the mechwarrior makes it.

Scrub takes a good amount of damage from the nearby Tokugawa, but rakes it with short range fire, removing most of the treads. That tank's not going anywhere, and the crew clambers out.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Hyena winds up facing the bulk of the enemy forces, and pulls back to the north. The Spider chases him down and kicks through the left torso, disabling the LBX autocannon.

Cylus zaps a nearby Panther with most of the Grasshopper's lasers, cutting off most of the center and right torso armor. The sudden loss of mass causes the enemy mech to fall over.

A Saladin tries to get clear of Scrub's PPCs but winds up crashing into some trees and getting stuck. Well, sucks to be that guy. He still manages to get an AC/20 hit on the Warhammer, breaching left torso armor and forcing our mech to a knee. Scrub breathes a sigh of relief as the XL engine remains intact.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Cylus moves in to finish the Panther, putting the large and four medium lasers on the target. Armor melts off, and one of the lasers hits the head. The Kurita mechwarrior holds it together, but has obviously had enough and joins his laser carrier buddy in retreating to the east. That's fine, not where our dropships are.

Scrub moves north, disabling a Scimitar hovertank with a PPC shot.

Hawk, backing up from the overwhelming force in the north, takes a couple of LRM and PPC shots, but manages to slice the damaged rotor off the Peregrine that Hyena started, taking it out of action. It's just as well, the Kurita Peregrine variant is highly annoying. The damage forces the Wolfhound to the ground, though. Hyena stomps on the nearby Saladin as it zips by. The Striker's foot crushes the fuel tank, destroying the vehicle entirely and leaving scorch marks all over our mech's left leg.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Cylus moves forward, braving the fire from the Manticore up ahead to carve up its treads and immobilize it.

Hyena backs up a little more, blowing away a laser carrier with a PPC shot.

Xwraith blasts the nearby Hunter with a couple of lasers, rattling the crew around.

Round 7:
Hyena blasts that annoying Spider in the left leg with three laser shots, disabling the limb and sending the smaller mech crashing to the ground.

The remaining mobile enemy units break north and east, leaving their disabled buddies at our mercy. Not really any way we can catch up to the lighter mechs, unfortunately. They know there's *something* here, but we kept them out of sensor range of the dropship landing zone, so we should be relatively clear. The highly unfortunate part is that Hyena's LBX autocannon is gone. Spare ones don't exactly grow on trees, so we'll need to do some creative field surgery on the Striker and put the original AC/10 back to make it functional again. The techs get it done in two days. We'll see if we can get a replacement once we get back to civilization. Hyena sniffs and a single tear drops down his face.

We claim the Tokugawa tank as salvage and strip the AC/10, armor and ammo off of it, then load it, along with the rest of the salvage, into the Jumbo.

Having finished securing our landing zone, it's time for us to start working on our objectives. One of them is a facility that the Davion intel says is a communications hub, supposedly responsible for coordinating Kurita response across the region. We'll want to send in a recon unit to confirm, then, if confirmed, send backup to stomp it flat.

Additionally, it looks like the Kurita guys are taking our presence here somewhat seriously - our recon spots a Kurita dropship coming down. They're not quite in the right area, being several hundred kilometers away from our landing zone, but our liaison suggests we "give those nosy, no-good dracs what-for." We'll want a lance to rout their search parties, and, quite possibly, another lance to see if we can't blow the dropship up itself.

I forgot to call it "a box of pure malevolent evil, a purveyor of
insidious insanity, an eldritch manifestation that would make Bill
Gates let out a low whistle of admiration," but it's all those, too.
-- David Gerard, Re: [Mediawiki-l] Wikitext grammar, 2010.08.06

As it turns out, it's a little less than a 2:1 tank:mech kill ratio (on your current mechwarrior). You've currently got 41 confirmed kills: 15 mechs, 26 tanks and fixed gun emplacements (and a single VTOL). Heaviest mech kill is an Archer, the rest being mostly lights with a sprinkling of mediums and heavies. Confirmed kill is basically anything that got totaled or disabled and subsequently salvaged by us. So the actual number of mission kills is probably a bit higher, as a lot of our opponents get crippled and withdraw rather than fight to the death (e.g. the Panther that Cylus pounded).

Your previous incarnations killed tanks almost exclusively, with only one mech kill.

and, quite possibly, another lance to see if we can't blow the dropship up itself.

Now that's[ what tiggers do best! Well, when Z is getting himself all blow'd up.

Oh, hi Zarathud!

Nothing... Nothing...

Just, ah, polishing the shells...

You're jealous that the enemy recognizes the real threat and I get all the attention. They can bite my PPCs, as long as commander clueless don't march us right inside the kill zone again.

Oh, wait, what was that lube you're applying to the shells?!? UGH, GROSS!

"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts." - Albert Einstein"When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal. - Nixon"I don't stand by anything." - Trump“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867

Not sure, but I think that's 10 PPCs between 4 of them and an AC20 on the 5th.

Have you considered part of the reason you are behind might be your inability to count correctly? After all, if you are counting your own kills, maybe you have more kills than is reflected here? Heck, maybe you're number 1!

Actually, considering you're on MkII and in a heavy mech, not an assault mech, you're doing amazingly well aren't you?

Having finished securing our landing zone, it's time for us to start working on our objectives. One of them is a facility that the Davion intel says is a communications hub, supposedly responsible for coordinating Kurita response across the region. We'll want to send in a recon unit to confirm, then, if confirmed, send backup to stomp it flat.

Additionally, it looks like the Kurita guys are taking our presence here somewhat seriously - our recon spots a Kurita dropship coming down. They're not quite in the right area, being several hundred kilometers away from our landing zone, but our liaison suggests we "give those nosy, no-good dracs what-for." We'll want a lance to rout their search parties, and, quite possibly, another lance to see if we can't blow the dropship up itself.

Delta 1 to recon/confirm command hub, Gamma 1 to flatten it if it's the real deal.

Alpha 1 can rout the search party, Beta 1 to the dropship (possibly reinforced by Alpha 1 depending on how things go for them). If we get directions from the Guap on how to approach... we ignore those and find a less directly into their crosshairs approach.

Delta 1 to recon/confirm command hub, Gamma 1 to flatten it if it's the real deal.

Alpha 1 can rout the search party, Beta 1 to the dropship (possibly reinforced by Alpha 1 depending on how things go for them). If we get directions from the Guap on how to approach... we ignore those and find a less directly into their crosshairs approach.

Not sure, but I think that's 10 PPCs between 4 of them and an AC20 on the 5th.

Have you considered part of the reason you are behind might be your inability to count correctly? After all, if you are counting your own kills, maybe you have more kills than is reflected here? Heck, maybe you're number 1!

Actually, considering you're on MkII and in a heavy mech, not an assault mech, you're doing amazingly well aren't you?

Stupid old eyes.
Sorry about the miscount, although I'll take the compliment!

I don't remember where I read this, Cort, maybe it was in the last patch notes, but they said the UAZ really handles the best when... the wheels are actually touching the ground.
--RedF1ve

I honestly don't know why people give the Quickdraw such a hard time. Sure it's lightly armored and doesn't have enough heat sinks to cover all of its guns, but it's fast and can drill through armor like nobody's business with those four lasers.

June 26, 3038

Well, it certainly *looks* like a comms hub. But, in order to confirm, we're going to need to do up-close scans of marked transmission sources. Madmarcus waits until it's both evening and also pouring cats and dogs out, rendering weapons targeting very difficult. The base is defended by a lance of mechs (two bugs, a Rifleman and a Griffin 1S), plus the requisite swarm of light tanks and hovercraft. At least that's what we see at first. Delta-One also detects a pair of conventional fighters flying around, along with a higher-mass aircraft closing in on the facility. And there's an extra medium lance of mechs out on patrol.

As our lance moves in, the higher-mass aircraft resolves to being a dropship, hot drops a lance of assault tanks, then zips off elsewhere.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We get pretty close before the Kurita units scramble. Our job is to scan those buildings with the turrets. Taking out a couple of the enemy units would be nice, but not required. That's Gamma-One's job (although, I'll be throwing Delta-One back into it if they don't get beat up too badly).

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The hot drop doesn't go very well for the Behemoth - instead of landing where it was supposed to, it lands on a building. Being a 100-ton tank, the building can't hold it up, so a cloud of dust kicks up as the assault tank collapses it. Surprisingly enough, the tank remains intact.

Delta-One is engaged by a Panther and a Griffin. The Griffin eats a large laser from Paingod, while the Panther does worse. It avoids most of Archinerd's SRM and medium laser salvo, at the cost of missing all of its shots, then eats a large laser and four SRMs from Madmarcus. The impact causes the light mech to wobble and fall over.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Archinerd and Paingod break north, while Freyland and Madmarcus break south. Freyland and Madmarcus engage a Phoenix Hawk, Freyland scoring a couple of medium laser hits. Madmarcus deftly dodges the Phoenix Hawk's kick and backhands it in the center torso, then Freyland nails the distracted enemy mech in the leg, stripping several actuators and sending it to the ground.

Paingod lasers the downed Panther while jumping by, breaching its left leg armor, while Archinerd takes a single SRM from a Wasp.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

We mostly avoid being shot at this turn, using the base buildings for cover. Archinerd gets in and scans a pair of transmission sources.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Whoop, here come the aircraft. Fortunately, they're the moral equivalent of bug mechs, but one still pelts Madmarcus with a couple of LRMs, while another throws in a pair of SRMs. Our Wolverine walks up behind a confused Saladin and zaps it with a couple of lasers - the large breaches armor, then the medium sets off all three tons of AC/20 ammo, annihilating the hovertank - the SRMs barely even add to the fireworks.

Freyland scans a third transmission source, while Archinerd gets the fourth. Time to get out, and transmit the data back to base for confirmation against provided Davion data.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

We start pulling back to the west. Archinerd gets a few good hits in on a Whitworth, while Madmarcus zaps the damaged Phoenix Hawk. The enemy mech remains upright, while our Wolverine takes a large laser to the center torso from the Kurita Thunderbolt. The nearby Wasp tries to kick our Dervish, but whiffs and falls on its back.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Freyland gives the enemy Panther a parting gift in the form of four medium lasers, including two to the center torso. The Kurita mech slips on the muddy ground and the mechwarrior inside blacks out.

Round 8,9,10:

Spoiler:

We're just about clear. A pursuing wasp takes a laser to the arm from Archinerd, while we get pelted with a few LRMs from the pursuing aircraft. Archinerd also puts some LRMs into a Whitworth. Freyland uses the Quickdraw's LRM launcher (and lasers) to discourage the fighters from trying to keep up with us as they try to get in a couple of last shots. The missiles impact a Sparrow's tail, which, combined with the turbulent nature of the air just now, causes it to lose altitude rapidly and slam into the ground, coming apart on impact. Congratulations on your first AA kill!

Delta-One transmits their acquired scan data back to base, where we compare it against the intel data the Davion guys provided. It matches up, meaning that this is, in fact, the comms hub we're looking for. Delta-One is mostly untouched, with only minor ammo expenditure. We totaled two enemy units, a Saladin and an aircraft, but also inflicted major damage on at least two mechs. Plus, from the looks of it, those Kurita guys are going to have to spend a few minutes pulling some of their tanks out of their buildings. So, a pretty good job softening the place up.

"Gamma-One, you are cleared for assault. Delta-One will remain in the area and provide backup." Madmarcus tells Scrub.

"Ok, here's the plan. Both lances approach from the south. Gamma-One-One and Two will engage enemy units at maximum range. Keep an eye on that main street, that's where most of the bad guys will be coming out of. Gamma-One-Three and Four will advance to the edge of the base and pick off isolated enemy units. Delta-One will approach thirty seconds after we open fire and join Gamma-One-Three and Four in clearing the town." Scrub pauses.

"Watch those heavy and assault tanks, and there's still a little gnat buzzing around. Everyone ready?" She gets a chorus of yeses and affirmatives.

"Move out."

Round 1:

Spoiler:

It looks like the Kurita guys have had time to tow their stuck tanks out of buildings and regroup at the center, but little else. They also seem to have deployed some infantry with field guns. One of the crews promptly gets run over by a careening hovertank, which crashes into a building (again) and stops moving. A single Harasser zips around outside the base, while the rest of the tanks use numerous buildings for cover - a few LRMs and light autocannon rounds zip by Scurb and Cylus, then Scrub blows away the Harasser with a single PPC shot.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Cylus and Hyena open up on the Scimitar hovertank that comes out. It pings Hyena with a single SRM, then a medium laser from Cylus cracks one of the fans while an AC/10 burst from Hyena busts open the front of the skirt. Scrub exchanges fire with a Maxim transport within the base, immobilizing it with a pair of PPC shots.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Looks like the Kurita guys aren't planning on bailing out of their vehicles right away, even if they're immobilized. That's fine, we'll help them out. Xwraith and Cylus both take minor hits, but their armor holds up. Our weapons fire isn't too effective, either simply melting armor or missing entirely. The nearby Wasp scrapes a little leg armor off Cylus' Grasshopper, then Xwraith steps on the back of the bug mech's leg. The limb itself comes off, then snapping myomer bundles smack the internal SRM ammo bin, and the little mech explodes.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Delta-One arrives, bringing news. "Delta-One-One to Gamma-One-One, I've got a lance's worth of sensor blips coming in from the southwest. Looks like light units, mostly. One heavy. ETA, one minute."

"Fine. Get in there, these guys are dug in like a Steiner noble looking for a promotion."

Delta-One is engaged almost immediately by a disabled Scimitar. A Warrior helicopter pelts Scrub with SRMs. Cylus gets a good hit on a Griffin jumping on top of a building, severely damaging its right arm with a large laser shot, burning out a pair of actuators. Scrub gives it a matching left arm, while blowing away the annoying little Scimitar-turned-turret underfoot. The Griffin can't take it and falls over.

Madmarcus aims at the annoying little Warrior helicopter and fires an SRM salvo, as well as several lasers. The lasers miss, but the SRMs completely annihilate the chopper as its on-board ammo goes off. That's two tons of LRM/10s and a ton of SRM/4s.

Xwraith jumps on top of a building and blasts a Scimitar as it peeks around a corner, immobilizing it and stunning the crew, ducking under a pair of AC/20 shots from a Demolisher. Gotta be more careful there.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The guy in the Griffin knocks himself out trying to get up. An annoying little aircraft comes in for a strafing run on Xwraith, while a Whitworth jumps in to our Thunderbolt's left - Xwraith is busy gunning down infantry firing out of a building. Well, the building comes down, anyway. Cylus nails the Whitworth with four lasers trying to cover Xwraith, while Scrub joins in with a PPC, taking off the medium mech's left arm. Madmarcus blasts one of its LRM/10 launchers with a laser as well.

Hyena nailes a Kurita Wasp in the left torso, blowing off the arm and disabling the torso section. He cringes as his Striker takes a hit from several LRMs and loses the PPC in the right torso, as well as a heat sink. But at least the Wasp falls over.

Archinerd puts a laser through a Maxim which keeps firing at us. If you guys are going to keep shooting after we disable your vehicles, you will die. Just, FYI.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

We're going to be a bit conservative in our approach to the center of the base - there are a lot of tanks in there, and their crews are being remarkably suicidal. Unlike the guy in the Wasp with the missing torso, who bails out after failing to get up - the amount of sparks flying out from the left leg is only exceeded by the amount of sparks as the ejection seat crashes into a building.

Hyena moves forward into the base, engaging an enemy Thunderbolt. The Kurita mech hits mostly the building in between the two of them, landing just one medium laser, while Hyena nails it with an AC/10 burst and a laser.

Archinerd disables a Skulker with a couple of SRMs, while all Scrub can do is squash some infantry.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

That guy in the Griffin just isn't having any luck. He wakes up, tries to get up, and fails, crunching his left arm in the process. Then knocks himself out again.

A Panther jumps up above the cover provided by the buildings, and Scrub immediately nails it with a PPC shot. Given the damage that mech must have taken previously, its center torso armor breaks wide open, and a large number of core components take damage. Freyland finishes it off with a quartet of medium lasers.

The Thunderbolt goes chasing after Archinerd, and Hyena takes full advantage of it, blasting the enemy mech in the back with an AC/10, taking out both missile launchers in the right torso (an LRM/15 and an SRM/2). What he doesn't notice is a bunch of infantry swarming over his mech, trying to plant explosives. The problem takes care of itself, though, as a Demolisher unleashes its AC/20s on the Striker. One shot nails the right arm, while the other clears out just about every infantryman. I guess we call that "ablative armor".

Xwraith, busy blasting away at a Brutus assault tank, takes some damage from the Whitworth, losing the LRM/10 launcher.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Cylus engages the Thunderbolt as it crosses the street to back up the Demolisher, scoring a headshot with a large laser and spreading the other lasers across the enemy mech's arms. The Grasshoppper takes some return fire from the Thunderbolt and nearby Vedette, but armor holds. The Thunderbolt falls over.

A Behemoth moves to the main street, but Scrub is on the ball, sending PPC shots and SRMs at it, with one shot blasting through the left side armor and engine block. Archinerd takes some damage, but at least the enemy tank is immobile.

Madmarcus' mech alerts the mechwarrior to a center torso armor breach as PPC shots zip in from the nearby Brutus. A precise medium laser shot takes out the heavy tank's engine, however. Freyland backs our Wolverine up, disabling a Scimitar hovertank with lasers across multiple air ducts. Madmarcus has to take a knee from all the incoming fire.

The buzzing aircraft pelts Paingod with a couple of missiles, but armor holds up there.

As an amusing aside, a single infantryman has been hanging on to Hyena's Striker for the last twenty seconds. Every time Hyena tries to brush him off, he moves, causing Hyena to punch himself.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Guess what the guy in the Griffin did this round? If you guessed "try go get up, damage his mech and black out", you win the "three blackouts in a row" prize. It's not very good.

Madmarcus tries to avoid as much of the incoming enemy fire as possible, while Freyland jumps in to help the leader get out. Our Wolverine takes severe damage to the engine shielding, heat spiking quite a bit, when combined with the weapons salvo our mechwarrior delivers to a Pegasus, lasers and SRMs disabling the light hovertank. With the mech creaking and groaning and the cockpit becoming a sauna, it's time to leave. Freyland ducks under an AC/20 round and blows the left torso off the Whitworth, not leaving it much to work with.

Scrub scores several hits on the Demolisher, stunning the crew and takes a little damage from the Thunderbolt. This is a good chance to take that damn thing down for good.

Archinerd runs in behind an SRM Carrier to the north, taking out its engine with a medium laser from the back.

Hyena finally gets rid of the lone infantry guy crawling over his mech.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

The Kurita reinforcements arrive from the south and west. It's not too much to look at, except for an SRM Carrier which we'll need to watch.

Madmarcus bugs out, screened by Freyland. The Whitworth has had enough and pulls back.

Xwraith, Cylus and Scrub surround the Thunderbolt and Demolisher. Cylus takes the Thunderbolt's head off with a laser. Hyena blasts in from the north, destroying the Demolisher's engine with an AC/10 burst while breaching the nearby Vedette's armor with a couple of lasers. Paingod then finishes the Demolisher off. The three tons of AC/20 ammo going off, combined with the fuel tank, is pretty spectacular.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

The Phoenix Hawk Delta-One had damaged in the previous fight comes out to fight Hyena as he blasts away at a turret. Xwraith is on the job, taking off the smaller mech's right arm, and the lasers mounted on it. The enemy mech delivers an alpha strike to Xwraith's Thunderbolt, although our mech's armor holds up better. Paingod puts two large lasers into the pixie's right side as well.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

A helicopter which came with the Kurita reinforcements flies too low in an effort to avoid Scrub's PPCs and crashes into a tree. Cylus jumps west, avoiding the cluster of not-quite-given-up Kurita tanks (even though their turrets are jammed, they're insisting on shooting at us, the suicidal bastards). The Grasshopper carves up a Skulker, foregoing the large laser to cool off.

Xwraith and Paingod team up on the Phoenix Hawk, blasting it with enough laser fire that the mech goes down (he'd have stayed up, but his leg actuators were beat up from the previous fight).

Round 13:

Spoiler:

The aircraft buzzes Madmarcus in his hiding spot (not a very good one I guess). It scores a couple of hits on armor, and eats a PPC shot from Scrub, damaging the landing gear. I see an ejection lever in that guy's future. Wait, no scratch that, it turns into a lawn dart as turbulence sends it flying out of control.

Xwraith and Archinerd have moved into the center of the base. While Hyena blasts away at one of the transmission towers, the two of them knock a Rifleman over with lasers and LRMs, crunching one of the enemy mech's medium lasers. Freyland has been working on another tower, and, using lasers and a boot, breaks it down to unusable form.

At this point, it becomes obvious to even the most die-hard Kurita loyalist that the fight is over. The Rifleman is the only really mobile enemy unit inside the base (the infantry avoid coming out into the open and we steadfastly refuse to expose ourselves to their tripod-mounted autocannons), so once he "lifts arms" and ceases fire, we let him go. The Phoenix Hawk and Whitworth have retreated already. The guys outside the base are quick to zip off as well. We slag the relevant structures, then call in salvage.

Salvage grabs the Griffin, the Thunderbolt and a Saladin, and we load the rest of the crap into the Union for the Davion share. All of Delta and Gamma-One are fixed up within a couple of days of returning to base. A good start to the operation - taking out a comms hub to degrade enemy coordination, and blowing up a bunch of assault tanks to boot. Not to mention we got ourselves a spare Griffin and Thunderbolt (not that we can re-assemble them right now, but we'll strip them for armor and spare parts and store the chassis in mothballs). It's annoying that the Rifleman, Whitworth and Phoenix Hawk got away, but them's the breaks - we still got more than a lance of their mechs. Would have been nice to salvage the Behemoth, as that's a lot of spare armor and AC/10 ammo, but the salvage clause on our contract is pretty tight. So, not this time.

Interrogating a captured mechwarrior reveals that elements of the 24th Dieron Regulars are already on-planet, so we should expect to see more mechs crowding our space.

I honestly don't know why people give the Quickdraw such a hard time. Sure it's lightly armored and doesn't have enough heat sinks to cover all of its guns, but it's fast and can drill through armor like nobody's business with those four lasers.

Who's dissing it? He's in a 60 ton mech and he's losing to 3 assault mechs (100 ton and 2 80 ton's) and 75 ton and a 70 ton mech. And he's very close. I thought he was doing pretty darn good!

And really, I don't count for high kill competitions, I've had an assault mech since we started. I had the only one for quite a while. If I wasn't the top kill dog, I'd have to think I suck (still being a Mk 1, when I become a Mk2, then obviously, I won't have the high kill total, at least not for a long, long, long time).